Past preserved — Canning still thrives

Wednesday

Jul 10, 2013 at 5:00 PM

It's almost a lost art in the world of food preservation — canning.

by Kevin Kerr/The Daily Ardmoreite

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is Part Three of a series. Share your own experiences or suggestions in getting Back to the Earth by emailing us at drichardson@oakridger.com or mailing us at 785 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Oak Ridge, TN 37830.

It's almost a lost art in the world of food preservation — canning.

Originally meant to stock food for the winter, when crops and produce don't typically grow, canning (sometimes known as bottling) has been handed down for generations since its creation by Nicolas Appert — a French confectioner and chef in Paris — in the late 1700s.

But, with an ever-present supply of fresh vegetables via grow-houses and importing, traditional home food preservation has fallen by the wayside.

"There's not many people that can anymore," Jean Page said.

Page is a member of a local home and community education group, and has been canning since she was very young.

"When I was young, during the summer months, my parents and my older sister would sit out in the backyard and shell peas and beans, whatever was ripe at the time," Page said. "I was the one that stayed in the kitchen. I had the smaller hands, so I could wash the jars and sterilize them."

From there, Page moved up to actually canning the items.

"They'd get the products ready, I'd clean them and put them in the jars," she said. "And that's where it all started."

Page says canning is no longer a necessity to ensure people will have something to eat in the winter months, which is a large contributor to it falling off. But the people who do can love it and respect it.

"For me, it's something I like to do, and I feel like everyone that does it now does it because they enjoy it," she said.

From here, it's a science of knowing what spices, herbs or other food items to add to the produce being canned to give it its flavor. Most vegetables can be canned with just water.

"But there's all kinds of recipes for adding peppers or spices to vegetables or fruits to change the flavor," Page said.

Many of Page's recipes come from canning books she's had for many years. But canning recipe books are readily available online or where recipe books are sold.

"You can also make up your own recipes, but they take time to get right," Page said.

Page has a system for canning soup mixes, which include fresh tomato, potato and vegetable soups.

"It's just something I made up one time and it makes quite a bit," she said.

How to can

There are two processes to canning items: A hot water bath or pressure sealing.

Both involve heat, which kills the organisms responsible for spoiling food.

In a hot water bath, the product is heated to a certain high temperature to kill any spoiling organisms. During the process, it will create a vacuum in the jar and seal the lid to the jar. This will be indicated by the depression of the center of the lid.

Once finished "cooking," the jars can be removed and a lid ring will be added to the lid. If the product has been canned properly, the dimple in the lid should stay depressed, sealing in the product. If the dimple pops back out, the process was not successful.

The same principle applies to pressure canning, only a higher, more intense heat is needed. This is typically needed for products with high acidic values.

Different canning recipes call for different times in the cooker, different temperatures and a few other nuances to make it work correctly.

Pickling and jellying

Pickling is another method of preserving foods. Similar to canning, pickling replaces the water in the jar with brine, vinegar, alcohol and oil. The product in the liquid will change over time in texture, taste and "potency." Flavors of pickled items can also be changed with the spices and herbs added to the mixture. The best example is the various types of pickles made from cucumbers that are sold in stores. However, other items, such as peppers, corned beef, herring, eggs and a mixture of other vegetables, can be pickled, too.

Jellying requires breaking down the product, typically fruit, to a paste or liquid. Jellies use only the juice from the product; jams and preserves use pieces of the product in the finished item. Once broken down, gelatin or some form of coagulant is added to thicken the product.

The same process for canning is applied to seal the product.

Jellying can also be applied to meats, by sealing them in fat in the jars. However, this is rarely practiced now.

Reasons to can

Canning was once used to feed people in the winter. Now, it's mostly done for fun. However, Page said canning is a very serious event at fairs.

"It has to be just right, and taste has nothing to do with it," she says.

When canning for competition, the size, length, color and overall appearance are the main factors. Page says some people even try to cheat by adding alcohol instead of water to clear up the product in the jar, making it appear brighter than it is.

"I knew someone that did that and their jars were stolen," she recalls. "I can't even imagine what those beans tasted like."

Also, items can't touch the top of the lid, nor can the liquid or product dip below the lid line on the jar. There should be no bubbles and no floating "debris," unless it is part of the pickling.

"They're picky, but it has to look clean and nice," she says.

Page entered a jelly competition one year with a watermelon jelly that she had never made before.

"I followed the recipe, got it in the jar and put it up for the fair," she says. "And do you know, I won first place for that jelly.

"I'd never made it before and the first time I did, it won."

But how did it taste?

"Well, it was fine, I guess, but I was more happy it won in the fair," she says. "Nobody else got to taste it."

Canning has indeed fallen by the wayside, but Page said there's still a place for it in society.

"I would say country people are more likely to can, and not necessarily people who live in the country, but people who have really nice gardens in town or that like that style of living," Page said. "As long as we have people like that and people like me who enjoy it, there will still be canning."